Drug availability may have an impact on the length of time that HIV patients in Asia remain on first-line combination antiretroviral therapy (ART), according to a recent paper published by researchers with the TREAT Asia HIV Observational Database (TAHOD).

The researchers concluded that the median length of time spent on first-line treatments was notably longer for patients in the TAHOD study than for those in earlier studies conducted in the West—3.2 years in Asia compared with 1.6 years in Australia and less than 1 year in the US. "In the context of limited resources, where the first regimen appears to be by far the cheapest option," the authors wrote, "clinicians might be reluctant to switch even in the context of true virological failure to alternative more expensive options."

Nonetheless, the authors noted that TAHOD patients on more costly second- or third-line regimens also had a reduced rate of change compared with Western cohorts, perhaps because many Asian countries have only a limited range of HIV treatment options compared with more developed nations.